As the Windows 8 Developer Preview is soon to in the wild, most people might find the new shell and user experience a little difficult to settle into. Here are a few simple tips and less-known features I’ve accumulated to help you master the new Start experience.

Just start typing with a keyboard in the Start screen to quickly search and launch applications.

Find additional applications (e.g. accessories generally found in the Start menu) can be found in the application list by clicking on the “Search” charm.

Speaking of languages, the new ‘language bar’ is almost useless: it’s just the name of the language with no other buttons… fortunately the old language bar can be easily enabled (though it’s as hideous as ever). I also can’t figure out how to add the US-International keyboard.

A person in a video demoing the ui, stated there was no way to switch between previews etc, in mouse mode, alt tab works fine, as well you can use the scroll wheel in the windows preview (left most edge) to cycle between open windows and applications.

Anyone know how to pull windows into split screen mode using the mouse?

“In mouse mode, activate the options/charms by moving the mouse to the bottom left edge (where the Windows button used to be).”
You know what – I tried for ages last night to try and work out how to do that – and I failed. Its good that I now DO know but I’m concerned for laypersons (like my parents) that will be totally lost in this new interface. They’ll want their Start button.

With touch input you can switch apps by swiping from the left bezel onto the screen.

To emulate with the mouse, put the cursor against the middle of the left side of the screen. A small preview will pop up next to your cursor. Click and hold the left mouse button, drag to the middle of the screen and release.

I wish that Explorer would highlight the entire line when selecting a file, rather than just the file name. If I want to select a file by date or size, then after finding the size, I must move slowly left across the Explorer panel to the fille name (making sure not to go up or down one line) until I get to the file, then select it. If the new Windows 8 Explorer could do this simple thing, then it will be much better. Earlier versions of File Explorer (Windows 3.1, NT) did this. Can we bring it back?

The windows key on its own allows you to move from application to the start menu and back again, i havent worked out how to shut down an app using the mouse and keyboard, (really annoying when your last used app has its own soundtrack)

I really want to suggest that the Metro menu be allowed to drag with the mouse. So if I grab the background anywhere, I can drag it horizontally instead of having to use the scroll bar at the bottom. That’d give it a more “tablet” feel on the desktop and make it easier and more intuitive to use IMO.

one tip i found out yesterday is, if you hover over left side to see metro apps you have used, then instead of clicking and dragging, left right, until you find your metro app. you can simple use mouse Wheel and it will change the app, so you dont have to drag apps just to find the one you want.
also you could right click and indicate what you want to do if snap desktop or the App you are clicking on, but i guess everyone knows that.
which means you dont have to drag and drop to place the Windows you want. because you can right click if you have snap thing and it has swap sides.

also Win + .
cycles between snap, full, left, right, then, swaps apps, and put the other as snap. that kind of stuff.

and also i like the way
win + ctrl + tab works. so you switch between apps in the snap feature which feels really sweet. obviously win + tab then would switch apps in the main window.

and you dont need to use Ease of Access to Access the dark theme, you could easily go to themes and use the high contrast themes. looks weird anyways xD

also another thing, when you go to languages preferences, some apps use the language orderyou have to make it avaiable in an app, so if i have spanish on top of the list then weather App will be in spanish,
if i have korean first and Spanish second in language list, and the app doesn’t have Korean language, then it will use second language in this case spanish.

anyway using this Windows 8 feels really nice, and i find Little things to make experience even better, of course it needs to improve but it has alot of nice features already. it looks good, it feels good. and i hope to find out about more “hidden” stuff.

Step 3: In the right pane, double-click on the entry named RPEnabled and change its value from 1 to 0 to enable the good old Start menu back in Windows 8. If that doesnt look good try changing value to 2.

By doing this u will get rid of metro start menu completely to re-enable reverse the steps.

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